Julie McCombs
Give Quez Nesbitt an inch and he's off to the end zone. Nesbitt rushed for over 300 yards and five touchdowns against Greenville.
Julie McCombs
Quarterback Mario Cusano threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Emanuel Kelly that resulted in a tip from Kelly to himself in the end zone.
Julie McCombs
Marquis Lyles, defensive end, gets a job well done tap on the helmet from defensive line coach Rashaad Jackson.
Julie McCombs
Jalen Stokes (21) upends a Greenville player as DeAndre Moren looks on approvingly.
Quez Nesbitt, the senior thrill-a-carry running back for the Greer Yellow Jackets, was hard-pressed to describe his running style.
“I don’t even know how I do some of the things I do when I see the videos,” Nesbitt said.
Nesbitt said he fights for every yard until he gets into the end zone. That pretty much sums up his 306-yards, five-touchdowns night that helped Greer overwhelm Greenville, 42-13, in both teams’ Region II-3A opener at Dooley Field. Greer is 3-1 and Greenville 1-3 overall.
Nesbitt’s scoring runs covered 12, 79, 25, 4 and 41 yards. On his 79-yard run, Nesbitt was almost caught from behind. The diving defender clipped Nesbitt’s heels with his fingertips that caused him to stumble and almost touch a knee to the ground near the 20-yard line.
But . . . well let Nesbitt describe why that wasn’t going to happen. “I saw an opening on the back side and broke through. I knew the back was gaining and it was going o be close but I was determined to get into the end zone.”
Nesbitt’s score put Greer ahead to stay, 14-7, with 6:37 remaining in the half. It remained the halftime score.
The run followed by one play Nesbitt committing a rare fumble. “It was a bad mistake by me. After the fumble I was down a little bit,” Nesbitt said. He picked himself up pretty quickly scoring four touchdowns and rushing for more than 200 yards the rest of the game.
Head Coach Will Young routinely sticks with one word – “tremendous” – in describing one of the state’s most exciting and productive players. He elaborated a little more saying, “The kid has tremendous drive, tremendous desire to be successful. He just absolutely refuses to fail.”
Greer quarterback Mario Cusano, a sophomore transfer from Connecticut, smiled widely when asked about Nesbitt. “He is a great player and fun to watch,” Cusano said. “I am just blessed to have a player like Quez. Everyday, in practice or a game, he will do something that is amazing.”
Emanuel Kelly tipped a Cusano pass to himself over a defender’s head and caught it in the end zone for a touchdown that built Greer’s lead to 21-7 with 39 seconds gone in the second half.
“He jumped and I tipped the ball,” Kelly said. “I didn’t know if I could catch it, I just kept my eyes on it.” Kelly said he never made that kind of play on a sandlot either.
Kelly also intercepted one of four passes Greer made against Greenville quarterback Carson Spiers. Dorian Lindsey, Jackson Tipton and Tay Woods also picked off passes.
Woods said he heard DeAndre Moren call for the ball on the interception. “I saw the ball come to my hands in as I heard DeAndre say ‘My ball.’” Woods said he was prepared for Spiers. “We watched a lot of film. We knew (Spiers) got the ball off fast and we did a good job on him.”
Young said he was impressed with the Jackets’ defensive line. “I thought the defensive front pressured (Spiers) pretty good. It seemed like he was on the ground a good bit. They do get rid of it fast, which makes it hard to get the sack. But, we do want him to know we’re there.” Spiers started his second straight game while regular quarterback Clark Scolamiero recovers from a shoulder injury.
Spiers passed for 244 yards on 50 throwing attempts.
The game’s only tie, 7-7, resulted when Spiers found Cam Wakefield on a 70-yard scoring pass play. Wakefield had clear sailing the final 40 yards when defensive back Jalen Stokes fell down. “I knew they would throw at me first since I was new in the secondary,” Stokes said.
Stokes said he had his sights playing for Greenville, to follow in his father’s footsteps. His mother graduated Greer High School. “I loved Greenville and grew up wanting to play for them,” Stokes said. “Now that I’m here it feels great liking Greer.”
Malek Johnson had to leave the game when he re-injured the same shoulder that was dislocated in the preseason. Young said the shoulder was popped out of place and popped back in without going to the emergency room.
Greer visits Travelers Rest and Greenville hosts Southside in region play next Friday.